


Anchor Stay

by furiosity



Category: Free!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Crossover, Curtain Fic, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Trope Bingo Round 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:08:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furiosity/pseuds/furiosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagami and Kuroko decide, for various reasons,  to join a basketball team at a university far from home and all their friends. It also happens to be the same university a pair of swimmers from Iwatobi are attending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the crossover I'd mentioned at the end of [Dead Reckoning](http://archiveofourown.org/works/899345/chapters/1738205) (but you don't need to have read that to read this). Technically, KagaKuro are probably supposed to be older than MakoHaru (since KnB began well before Free! did) but I decided to make them the same age since there's no real reason they wouldn't be. This will be a shorter one, wrapping up in fewer than 10 chapters (maybe a lot fewer; I'm not 100% sure yet). Gross domestic fluff with bonus pets. ^^; A poem by Ada Cambridge inspired the title.
> 
> Also, this will switch off between Kagami's and Makoto's POVs (every chapter, with Kagami getting more chapters than Makoto because he will open and close the story)

"I thought there'd be cows." 

"Kagami-kun, do you really want that to be the first thing you say upon arriving somewhere you'll spend the next four years of your youth?"

Taiga scowled at the back of Kuroko's head. "You sound like an old man. I already said it, so there's no helping it. Besides, this place is famous for farm stuff, right?"

"You mean the university has strong agricultural programmes," Kuroko said.

"Yeah, that." Taiga said, examining the weathered bronze statue Kuroko stopped at: a man with a sack over his shoulder facing a trio of rabbits.

Kuroko turned to look up at him. "We're not at the university. That's two stops from here."

Taiga glanced from side to side and adjusted his bag strap. "So why'd we leave the station?"

"I followed you out."

"You should've said something," Taiga muttered. He'd seen an ad for Maji Burger on the platform and headed out without really thinking about it. The boxed lunch he'd bought at the station before the two-hour train ride here had already been a distant memory one and a half hours ago. "If it's just two stops local, we could walk." He spotted the Maji Burger sign across the station square. _After I've had a few burgers._

Kuroko shook his head. "We could, but this isn't central Tokyo. It'd take over an hour to walk those two stops."

"Damn." Taiga looked behind him, at the large clock on the wall of the station building: it was noon. "Well, we're early. The landlady won't be there with the keys until four."

"So you want to walk?"

"No, I want to eat," Taiga said, pointing at Maji Burger.

*

"Kagami-kun, why did you think there would be cows? Why not chickens?"

"Lemme alone," Taiga mumbled through his mouthful of burger. Kuroko asked the weirdest questions at the weirdest times.

Kuroko picked up a fry and pointed it at Taiga. "Horses?"

Taiga swallowed. "Cows are the most important," he explained. "Burgers come from cows."

Kuroko nibbled his fry with a thoughtful expression. "They seem to like rabbits best here."

"Like the statue we saw out there?" He gestured vaguely in the direction of the square outside.

"Yeah, they seem to have a white rabbit theme going," Kuroko said. He showed Taiga a Maji Burger flyer that had a cute white rabbit with a speech bubble advertising a special lunch deal. "I also saw a picture of a white rabbit on a pole, and that car outside the window has a rabbit bumper sticker."

"That's a lot of rabbits in one place," Taiga agreed, stuffing the second half of his burger into his mouth.

Kuroko pulled out his phone, punched in something, and started reading while slowly working on his fries. Taiga was putting away his fourth hamburger when he spoke up again. "It's from a folk tale."

"Like Alice in Wonderland?"

"That's not a folk tale, Kagami-kun. No, it's about a rabbit who wound up on an island and wanted to get back to the mainland, so he tricked some sharks into lining up in the sea so he could hop across their backs."

"Oh yeah, I remember that one. The stupid rabbit told the sharks he tricked them before he was out of their reach, so they ate his tail or something? And that's why rabbit tails are short?"

"No, this version is a bit more gruesome than that," Kuroko said. "He does lose an important body part, and then the man from the statue helps him get it back."

"Which body part?"

"The largest external organ," Kuroko said.

"He loses his dick?" Taiga asked in a whisper, mindful of the group of women in city worker vests having lunch at a nearby table.

"Kagami-kun, you're actually a pervert, aren't you?" The faint flush across Kuroko's face belied his deadpan expression. "The largest human external organ is the skin."

Taiga rolled his eyes. "I knew that, stupid. You were obviously setting me up to say dick, so don't complain I gave you exactly what you wanted."

Kuroko looked about to say something, but then didn't. Instead, he took a sip of his milkshake as the colour in his cheeks slightly intensified.

 _Was that flirting?_ Taiga wondered, turning his attention to his fifth burger. _Were we flirting just now?_

"If you ask me, it's stupid to mess around with sharks in the first place," he said after the last bite, as he reached for the sixth. "He could've at least tried swimming."

*

Their apartment building had three floors, with terrace-style corridors connecting the apartments, of which there were two to a floor. The building sat on a dead-end street just a block from the train station, its white-painted exterior just beginning to show signs of weather and age. Its only real neighbour was an empty lot -- well, empty except for the neat rows of vegetables planted in its well-tilled earth.

There were exterior staircases on both sides of the building, plus a covered stairwell in the middle that looked like it'd been meant for an elevator that never got built. Next to the middle entrance were two vending machines nestled up against a cluster of pink camellia shrubs that seemed to be everywhere in the city. A skinny young cherry tree bloomed in a circular plot in the middle of the building's unpaved yard. A pair of bicycle racks decorated the sides of the yard, but there looked to be still plenty of room for a moving van to get around the cherry tree.

Kuroko had been right: central Tokyo, this place was not. The tallest building Taiga had seen so far in this part of town had eight floors. The central station area had a number of tall buildings and was busy enough to look like a city, but out here it all looked very suburban. Though even in Tokyo suburbs you didn't see kitchen gardens taking up entire empty lots. The air had an almost rural, tranquil quality.

The landlady, Tamagawa, was already inside when Taiga knocked on the door at a quarter to four. Kuroko had stayed downstairs to watch for the movers, who were due to arrive any minute.

Tamagawa walked him briskly through the apartment and ascertained that water, gas, and electricity were all on.

"As we discussed on the phone, the utilities are included in your rent," Tamagawa said after showing Taiga the controls on the AC unit. The companies will come to read all the metres every month, except for the water people who come every two months."

"What if we're not home?" Taiga asked.

"I'll call you to notify they're coming. If you cannot be home at the time, one of our staff will come out to let them in with our key."

Taiga's phone rang. 

"The movers are here," Kuroko said.

"Our movers are downstairs," Taiga said to Tamagawa.

She smiled and handed over two sets of keys. "There you are, Kagami-san. Please contact me if you need any assistance."

A half hour later, the spacious living room seemed a thousand times smaller with boxes stacked against both walls -- red stickers for Taiga's things, blue stickers for Kuroko's. They didn't really have time to go through their stuff and agree who was going to bring what, so they'd spend the weekend going through any duplicate items and deciding whose iron to keep, for example. 

Not that Taiga had any reason to suspect Kuroko owned an iron, but stranger things had happened.

Nigou arrived at six in the evening. The pet taxi pulled up just as Taiga was returning from the convenience store with some basics for the kitchen. Kuroko was also downstairs. "The driver called me to let me know he was about here, so I came down."

The driver pulled up to the cherry tree, greeted them, opened the car's back door, and worked open the special mesh-enclosed compartment that prevented animals from moving around too much without making them feel claustrophobic like a crate would.

"He was a very good boy," the driver said. "Always told me clearly when he had to go outside, and didn't try to run away"

Nigou bounded out of the backseat, gave Kuroko a perfunctory friendly headbutt, then turned all his attention to Taiga. He had grown tall enough so his back reached Kuroko's kneecaps, but lost none of his puppy enthusiasm. The most slobbery and aggressive parts of that enthusiasm were always reserved for Taiga, who had just about learned to bear them. So he bore them now -- Nigou jumped all around him, sometimes high enough to lick his chin, while Kuroko stood back and sipped green tea out of a vending machine bottle.

"All right, enough of that," Taiga said firmly after Nigou's fifth attempt to lick his face. Nigou sat down beside Kuroko and thumped his tail against the fine stones that covered the yard. Kuroko patted him on the head, and then the three of them took the exterior stairs to their apartment. Their only neighbours' first set of windows was open, and it sounded a little like a party inside: at least six people talking at once, music from a detuned radio, the clink of glassware, children's laughter.

 _Kids?_ Taiga thought, walking past as he struggled to keep hold of Nigou's leash. Not that it was a problem, but he could've sworn the landlady said they only rented to university students.

"Ran, get away from there, you're too big to climb curtains!" a woman's voice scolded. "Do you want to ruin your brother's new living room?"

"They must have just moved in too," Kuroko said as they walked on and the voices receded. "Probably having a housewarming party for family, that's why there are kids."

"Should we have a party?" Taiga asked. 

"It's a long way to ask people to come."

"I guess you're right," Taiga said. "Besides, most of them are busy moving, too, into dorms and stuff."

Kuroko opened the door with his set of keys, and Taiga unhooked Nigou's leash to let him go inside first.

"You won't hate it here, will you?" Kuroko asked, watching Nigou run around the living room sniffing all the boxes as if trying to make sure everything got safely delivered. 

"Because of Nigou?" Taiga asked. "I told you already it was fine. I'm used to him."

"No, I mean this school, this team. You could've gone anywhere, like a famous school with big name team sponsors and things like that."

"I don't care about that kind of stuff," Taiga said. "I want to keep playing basketball with you, and this school recruited you. So it's my kind of team."

Kuroko's eyes widened. The two of them stood in the doorway, staring at each other, Taiga once again caught off-guard by an intense wish to put his arms around Kuroko. Strictly platonically. Or maybe not. Either way, they didn't have that kind of a relationship. Even after winning a big game, a high five and a couple of nice firm back-slaps were usually good enough. Full-body contact happened all the time on the court with no one batting an eye, but it was different when on purpose.

The truth was, when the university scouts started busting down Taiga's door but none of them wanted to even hear about Kuroko, Taiga knew he was going to end up following wherever Kuroko went. For him it was beyond basketball -- he wanted to be on the same team with Kuroko, sure, but he also couldn't imagine not seeing Kuroko every day. Even if it was Sunday and they hung out in opposite corners of Taiga's couch, Taiga watching movies and Kuroko reading one of those weird science fiction paperbacks.

He'd tried to tell himself it was because they were best friends, but he'd been best friends with Tatsuya back in the day, too. Tatsuya's departure, while not pleasant, had not left him feeling like someone had ripped away a layer of his heart. Just thinking about Kuroko not being around was enough to make Taiga feel like that.

Nigou barked. Taiga broke eye contact and walked into the apartment, past a very still Kuroko.

He had four more years to figure this out, whatever it was.

*

The beds they ordered wouldn't be delivered until the following weekend, so they were going to be sleeping on futons the landlady provided for the first week. There was plenty of other furniture, though: two sets of bookshelves, two desks that folded neatly up against the corridor-facing wall and could be hidden behind the heavy side-drapes when not in use. Geared very obviously towards a pair of university students here for the long term.

It was much roomier than anything they could've got had they ended up in a more populated area. The toilet was properly separate from the bathroom, and the room even had its own sink. The entrance area to the bathroom was large enough to let three Taigas move around comfortably, and that was with the washer-dryer combo in the corner. The apartment itself had a proper entrance with lots of room for shoes without needing to shove them into a wall compartment. There was only one wardrobe in the bedroom, but it was more than big enough for two.

Taiga and Kuroko spent the day going through all the boxes and deciding where everything was supposed to go. This took much longer than Taiga expected it to, and they only made it through half of their things before calling it quits and heading for the city centre in search of proper food.

"We should greet our neighbours tonight," Kuroko said while they were in the department store basement's food section. It was just past dinner time, and there were lots of 50% off stickers around already.

Taiga looked around. "What should we bring?"

"How about those?" Kuroko pointed at the cake display they'd passed a few minutes ago. "They have assorted mini cakes on special. That way there's bound to be something they really like."

"What if they hate sweet things?"

"Cake isn't that sweet. Anyway, it's the thought that counts."

"How do we know it's _they_ , anyway? We only heard about some little girl's brother. Maybe he's alone."

"No, there's two of them. I heard them earlier heading for the stairs."

"I wonder why they didn't take the stairs on their side."

"Probably because they were going to check on their garden, and our staircase is closer to that. Theirs is closer to the road."

Taiga did a double take. "That's their garden? It's huge."

"Not the whole thing," Kuroko said, steering Taiga towards the cakes with a hand on his back. "There's a little notice about it in the main stairwell -- everyone from our block uses it. There are ropes with plastic name tags around people's plots. We could have our own if we wanted."

"I don't know anything about gardening," Taiga said, wishing Kuroko would just keep his hand in the middle of his back like that. It felt warm.

"We've got four years," Kuroko pointed out, and let his arm drop to his side again as the cake seller greeted them.

*

"They’re swimmers," Kuroko said after Taiga knocked on the neighbours' door. "I heard them talking about practice, earlier."

 _Practice already? They're sure not taking it easy -- the school year hasn't started yet._ Taiga sighed. “Is that why you didn’t finish unpacking the bathroom? You sat by the kitchen window to people-watch, didn’t you?”

"People-listen, not people-watch. The curtains were drawn." Kuroko had the grace to look contrite, at least.

The door opened to reveal a dark-haired, blue-eyed guy who gazed at them with calm suspicion. 

"We just moved next door," Taiga said, proffering the decorative bag with the mini-cakes. Kuroko elbowed him, slightly. "Er, ah, this isn't much, but please accept it."

Blue Eyes looked over his shoulder. “Makoto, it’s the new guys from down the hall, not robbers. Put the broom down and come say hi.”

 _Oh, a couple,_ Taiga thought. Makoto was a girl's name. _Why didn't Kuroko mention that the other person was a girl?_

A second tall guy shuffled into view, looking sheepish, his eyes as deep green as his roommate's were blue. A little orange kitten sat on his shoulder.

"Nanase Haruka," Blue Eyes said, accepting the cake bag Taiga forgot he was holding. 

_Isn't Haruka a girl's name, too?_

"I'm Tachibana Makoto," the other one said, still looking very embarrassed, but smiling. "You really shouldn't have. We just moved in ourselves..." He trailed off with a vague gesture.

"I'm Kagami Taiga, and this is Kuroko Tetsuya."

"We'll be first years at the university starting this year," Kuroko added.

"Us too," Nanase said, his expression shifting from wariness to curiosity.

Tachibana brightened. "Why don't you guys come in and have tea? I was just about to make some."

The kitten meowed loudly.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not introducing you," Tachibana said, scratching under its chin. "This is Riku. We only met last week, but he's already the boss."

[to be continued]


	2. Chapter 2

Kagami had to duck just a little before walking inside the apartment. Makoto didn't think he'd ever met such a tall person before -- as Kagami had passed by the living room window, the lightly billowing curtains gave his outline an especially menacing cast, which was why Makoto had gone for the broom when the doorbell rang. Just in case.

He still wasn't sure what he would have _done_ with the broom if their visitors had turned out to be robbers, but he was still a little spooked after all those stories Haru's mom told them about living in the city. You couldn't even leave your garbage outside for too long, because some people were able to somehow use it to steal identities.

"Your windows are positioned differently," Kuroko said after he sat down on a cushion by the living room table, facing the window. "Ours is in the kitchen, but our living room is in the same place."

"Is that bad?" Makoto asked.

"No, just a little strange. In buildings like this, everything's usually mirrored," Kuroko explained.

Haru walked in from the kitchen, bearing a tray with four teacups and a plateful of the tiny cakes Kagami had brought. They were all topped with different kinds of things: berries, frosting, colourful layers of jelly, frosting, slivered nuts, spun sugar, and chocolate curls. Makoto recognised the style: his mom loved the place that made these. Every year for Mother's Day, he would take Ren and Ran to the city, and the twins would press their little noses to the cake display glass in the department store's basement while Makoto made the purchase.

_I used to take them along_ , Makoto corrected himself mentally. This year, he would go and see his mom, of course, and he'd bring her favourite cakes, but the kids wouldn't be coming with him. They would have to do everything themselves now.

"These are nice," Haru said, taking a seat next to Makoto.

"Yeah," Makoto said, feeling guilty for having spaced out over the cakes. "You really didn't have to. Please have some with us."

Riku, who had curled up in Makoto's lap immediately after he'd sat down, hopped up to the edge of the table and began to navigate between plates and cups, setting a wobbly course for Kagami, who watched the approach with mild apprehension. Riku was still young enough to be a little clumsy, and he didn't quite have the prey-stalking movements down yet, so he stumbled sideways a couple of times. Makoto tried not to snicker -- some cats could be very sensitive about being laughed at -- but it was difficult.

"Riku looks drunk," Haru remarked. Riku paused at the sound of his name just as Kagami moved his teacup out of the way.

That was the moment Makoto decided that he was going to get along just fine with the new neighbours. People who looked out for a small animal about to bump into a cup full of hot tea couldn't be bad. Though Kagami did have a kind of scary face -- not as scary as Rin's could be, but just as intense. Makoto couldn't help but wonder if his eyebrows were normally like that or if he shaped them on purpose. Some people were into that.

Riku turned his attention back to Kagami, who offered him a hand to sniff. Riku began to creep towards it.

"We have a dog," Kagami said, startling Riku into another pause. "So he might dislike us."

"Has he met a dog before?" Kuroko asked.

"Probably not," Makoto said, glancing at Haru for affirmation. Haru shrugged.

Riku belonged to a litter from one of the shrine cats back in Iwatobi -- Grandma Asahi, Makoto's neighbour, had let the new cat-mom stay in a little shed until the kittens were old enough to survive on their own, then had gone around town asking people if they'd be willing to adopt a kitten. Makoto and Haru, who had been planning to get a cat when they moved, took that as a sign and decided to take one. Ren and Ran unanimously named him King Riku after a comic book character 'because he has droopy whiskers'.

Kagami's hand lay on the table, palm up, fingers relaxed and curled inward. Riku inched towards it, tail twitching a bit. He was turning out to be very much a people cat; cautious or not--

Riku leapt over and stuck his whole face inside Kagami's hand.

Kagami laughed. "What are you doing? Doesn't it smell of dog?" _He's not scary at all when he smiles_

"If he hasn't met any dogs, he doesn't know what the smell means," Kuroko said. "It'll just be interesting to him."

"What kind of dog do you have?" Haru asked. Riku began to claw his way up Kagami's sweatshirt-clad arm, which Kagami didn't seem to mind: he watched Riku go with evident fascination.

"Alaskan Malamute," Kuroko said, staring at Kagami's face. Haru looked blank.

Makoto knew the breed. He'd only ever seen photos, though. "Black and white and grey colouring, big and fuzzy, right?"

"How big is it?" Haru asked.

Kagami held his free hand above the floor at about double the height of the low table.

"That's enormous," Makoto said, with some concern. "I hope your dog doesn't hate cats."

"I don't think so," Kuroko said. "He's pretty friendly."

"He'll probably be even friendlier here," Kagami put in. "There's more space to run around than Tokyo, and running around makes him happy." 

As Kagami spoke, Riku tottered precariously on his upper arm, his tail curled under him, stretching out his neck to sniff Kagami's ear. It was improbably cute, but Makoto sensed Haru shift and quickly looked at him: he looked like he couldn't decide whether he should frown or not.

_Tokyo._ Haru had gotten angry at Tokyo after Makoto went there last summer, and though it hadn't come up lately, hopefully he wouldn't start to dislike these two by association. Makoto wasn't sure if they were going to become friends, but he hoped to avoid a bad relationship with their neighbours.

"You guys are from Tokyo?" Makoto asked. There had been _something_ different about the way they spoke, but he hadn't been able to figure out what it was.

"What about you?" Kuroko asked. "Where are you from?"

"Iwatobi," Haru said, with the air of a man sure that everyone present knows exactly what he's talking about.

"It's a town not far from here," Makoto explained.

Kagami petted Riku's head, a little awkwardly -- it was clear he wasn't used to interacting with anything quite so small. Riku took the petting as his due and began to clamber back down Kagami's arm, his attention on Kuroko now.

Kuroko moved his teacup as well, just in time, as there was less space to traverse between Kagami and Kuroko, who sat almost side by side. Riku sniffed Kuroko's shirtsleeve, and Kuroko hooked his finger under Riku's chin and scratched.

"King Riku takes his taxes," Haru remarked. His voice was totally normal, so maybe he wasn't going to hold Tokyo against the neighbours. 

Having completed the mandatory inspection of strange new humans, Riku trotted straight for the cake plate, which Haru snatched up before he could reach it. The cat pretended as if his original intention had been to pass through the spot where the plate had been, then he veered off towards Makoto and climbed back down into his lap.

"You got snubbed, Haru-ch-- uhm, Haru." They'd made a deal that now that they were practically adults living on their own, Makoto would stop saying _Haru-chan_ , but it was tough going. It had only been a week.

"Kittens shouldn't eat cake," Haru said, leaning in close to look at Riku, as if to scold him. Normally this would not have fazed Makoto, but he wasn't sure if that was too close by other-people standards. It sort of looked like Haru was staring at his crotch. Which he was. But there was also a kitten there, and Kagami and Kuroko obviously _knew_ that. _Maybe I'm just a huge pervert._

"So, um, how come you guys came all the way out here for university?" Makoto asked quickly, before he could continue that train of thought and start blushing.

"We got scouted by the basketball team," Kuroko said.

Haru sat up straight. "Both of you?" he asked, looking at Kuroko with skepticism that Makoto couldn't help but share.

Kagami gave a short laugh and ruffled Kuroko's hair. "He might look like this, but he's good."

Kuroko wriggled out from under Kagami's hand, a slight flush on his face. "That doesn't feel like a compliment, Kagami-kun," he complained.

"It's not a compliment, dumbass," Kagami shot back. "It's just a fact."

Kuroko seemed unfazed by either the insult or Kagami's somewhat belligerent tone; this must have been just how they were. But Makoto had also noticed that Kagami wasn't being honest. He'd looked really proud when he'd praised Kuroko: his whole face had lit up. _Though I don't know enough to tell if he's lying to himself or to Kuroko. Or both._

"Are you on any sports teams, Tachibana-kun, Nanase-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"Swimming," they said together, and Kuroko nodded in a weirdly satisfied way, as if he'd known what they were going to say.

"I'm going to study kinesiology so I can become a swim coach," Haru offered.

"As for me, I'm going into veterinary science," Makoto said. For some reason it came out very stiffly, like a formal introduction. He wondered if there was a way to talk about your study aspirations without sounding highfalutin. All the courses of study had such majestic names.

"Oh, will you be commuting to the other campus?" Kuroko asked. "That's where the medical school is, right?"

"It is, but the undergrad vet programme is actually here under the Department of Agriculture," Makoto said. "If I get into graduate school, I'll have to start commuting. What about you, Kuroko-kun? Could you be starting in the medicine track?"

"Not me," Kuroko said. "A friend of mine was thinking about applying to the med school there, but decided not to when he found out we'd be attending."

_That's a strange friendship,_ Makoto thought.

"Which friend?" Kagami wanted to know.

"Oh, it was Midorima-kun."

Kagami snorted. "I bet he hated the idea of being on the same team as us."

"I think so too. Though that's a really petty reason not to attend a particular university."

"I'm glad Rin wasn't like that," Haru said to Makoto. "Not wanting to be on the same team as us."

"Yeah," Makoto agreed. "Even though he hates to lose more than anyone."

"Yeah, Mido-- uh, the guy we know is like that too," Kagami said.

"Everyone we know is like that," Kuroko added. His eyes looked a little bit sad.

"Then again, swimming isn't really a team sport," Haru continued. Abruptly, he turned to Kagami. "Do you like water?"

Makoto felt a headache coming on. He'd forgotten how strange Haru's water fixation was to people who weren't used to him.

"Water?" Kagami asked. Haru's stare was so sharp and intense that Kagami looked a bit like an animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming train. A very large animal who might have contemplated eating the train.

"Yeah, just in general," Haru said.

"I like it," Kagami declared. "We need it to live, after all."

Haru turned to Kuroko, expectant. Makoto reached over and tugged on Haru's blue jeans, but Haru ignored him.

"I don't dislike it," Kuroko said. "But I'm not a very strong swimmer."

"That's okay," Haru said. "So what are you guys going to study?"

Makoto exhaled. He had been a little afraid that Haru would try to have the 'if water is alive, and humans are 70 per cent water, doesn't drinking water count as cannibalism?' conversation. 

"Policy," Kagami said, averting his eyes for some reason.

"Aiming for the government?" Makoto asked. Lots of other kids in their graduating class were studying regional and municipal policy -- it was a sure avenue to secure government employment. It surprised him a little; Kagami seemed like more of a grab-the-bull-by-the-horns type of person, not a play-it-safe one. But judging by appearances only took you so far.

Kagami's face turned a bit pink. "Not really."

"The coach told him to pick a major he wouldn't flunk out of in a year," Kuroko supplied.

"Shut up," Kagami muttered.

"And since English Communication Studies wasn't available, policy was all that was left," Kuroko continued with a kind of gleeful undertone 

"So you're really good at English?" Haru asked

"He is," Kuroko answered.

"I lived in America for a while," Kagami said, cuffing Kuroko lightly upside the head. "Quit answering for me. Some education major you're going to be, not letting people give their own answers."

"You aren't my student, Kagami-kun. Even if you flunk out of university, there's no way you'll ever be my student: you're too old."

Kagami glared at Kuroko; Makoto looked at Haru and realised they were both in the same boat: trying hard not to laugh. The two of them -- rough-spoken Kagami and faultlessly polite Kuroko -- were a little like a comedy duo.

"You two really get along," Makoto said, smiling. "How long have you known each other?"

"Not that long," Kagami said. "We went to the same high school. What about you guys? Did you go to the same school?"

"Our parents have lived next to each other since before we were born," Makoto said. "We did go to all the same schools, too."

"Best friends, huh," Kagami murmured, not looking at anyone in particular. 

"Could I use your bathroom?" Kuroko asked.

"Yes, of course," Makoto said. "It's just through the door to your left."

"He knows that, Makoto," Haru said. "Same apartment."

"Oh. Right!" Makoto smiled, but inwardly he was experiencing a strange dread. Had they closed the bedroom door? Or would Kuroko walk past it and notice that there was one double bed inside?

"I closed it so Riku wouldn't hide under the bed," Haru murmured from behind his teacup.

Makoto sighed with relief and promptly stuffed a mini-cake into his mouth to mask his no doubt weird facial expression. "Ish delishush," he mumbled, mouth full.

"We should go walk Nigou," Kagami said after Kuroko came back a few minutes later. "He only got an hour and a half earlier."

"Nigou is our dog," Kuroko explained.

"He's _your_ dog," Kagami said, rising. "Come on."

They spent another minute or so exchanging the customary pleasantries as Kagami and Kuroko got their shoes back on in the entrance. Then the door shut behind Kagami's enormous frame, and the two of them were alone again.

"I think he's even taller than Mikoshiba," Haru offered.

"You might be right," Makoto said.

Haru stepped up to him and began working his pants open without another word. 

"Wh-wh-what are you---?" Makoto yelped, edging away, though without much conviction. Haru dropped to his knees and tried to drag his pants down, but Makoto held on to them, just barely. "Haru!"

"What?" Haru asked, looking up at him with mild irritation. "You got all flustered when I was talking to Riku in your lap. Wasn't this what you were thinking?" 

"Oh no," Makoto said, holding on to his pants for dear life. "Was it that obvious? What must those guys have--?"

"It was obvious to me, but I don't think _they_ noticed you were thinking about blowjobs."

"I wasn't!" Makoto protested. "Well, I _was_ , but not like _that_. I just became concerned that they'd figure out we're actually together. Because maybe you were too close."

"Oh, so that's what it was," Haru said, letting go of Makoto's pants.

Makoto sat down on the floor with him. "Well, now that you mention it..."

Haru headbutted his shoulder. "I'm going to take a bath first."

"Okay, I'll wait," Makoto said. He usually went first into the bath, because he never took as long as Haru did, but he still hadn't worked up the courage to ask if they could go in together. Haru's bath time was special -- maybe he'd get offended that Makoto wanted to intrude.

Makoto went into the living room to clear away the table, put the leftover cakes back in the box they came in and stuck it in the fridge, then washed the dishes. Once the kitchen was clean to Haru's standards, he went back to the living room to retrieve Riku. The kitten was sleeping on the cushion where Makoto had left him, so he backed quietly out of the room and killed the lights. Riku had just got over his initial fear of this new strange place and his strange new big friends; it wouldn't do to startle him out of sleep.

Makoto lay down across their bed and squinted up at the ceiling until his eyes got used to the gloom. They hadn't closed the curtains yet, but it was already dark outside. He hoped their new neighbours wouldn't get lost walking their dog. Then again, if they could navigate in Tokyo, they'd never get lost here.

"Basketball players all the way from Tokyo, huh," he murmured. He hadn't even known the university had a basketball team. And he'd always heard of people moving from the country to big cities to go to university, not the other way around. After all, to him and Haru, this was a big city. But to someone from Tokyo, it must have seemed like a village. The world could feel like a lonely place on a quiet night like this.

Makoto dozed off. When he woke, early morning light streamed through the window, and a lock of Haru's hair tickled his nose. Makoto's mind stumbled through the familiar _where are we?_ confusion. Waking with Haru wasn't a novelty any more, but waking with Haru in _their_ bed, in _their_ apartment, well, that was going to take some getting used to. Makoto's chest swelled with so much contentment he thought he'd explode.

Then he realised they were lying across the bed, and Haru had used one of the futon comforters to cover them, since Makoto had fallen asleep on top of their normal comforter. The futon one was way too small for two, and their legs stuck out from under it. Haru slept with his forehead pressed to Makoto's chest, and Makoto's left arm was numb from Haru's weight on it. His other arm was tightly wrapped around Haru's back.

"'Time is it?" Haru mumbled, shifting so his face tilted towards Makoto. 

His eyes opened, meeting Makoto's, and Makoto felt as though someone had punched him in the gut. "Good morning," he whispered, smiling. He wanted to wrap both arms around Haru and hold him as close as he could. They'd woken up together more than a hundred times since last summer, and still it was the same every time.

Haru leaned up for a kiss, slow and sticky with sleep. Makoto wiggled his numb arm to get some feeling back. "Why didn't you wake me? Now we slept all weird."

"Looking at you sleep made me sleepy," Haru explained. "What time is it?"

"Dunno," Makoto said. "It's Sunday."

Haru sat up to look at the clock on the windowsill. "Six. The pool doesn't open until nine today."

"Let's go back to sleep," Makoto suggested. "Properly this time."

They climbed into bed -- their bodies had warmed a spot in the middle so it wasn't as cold as Makoto thought it would be. He realised that although he had fallen asleep fully clothed, now he only had on his T-shirt and underwear. "You undressed me and I missed it?" he asked, peeling the shirt off under the covers.

Haru gave him a sidelong glance. "I took too long in the bath."

"It's okay."

Haru rolled closer for a kiss, and then another, and another; by the time Makoto realised Haru had had no intention to sleep from the start, he was naked and panting, with his hand around Haru's cock.

"Your hand feels good," Haru hissed into his ear. "Makoto."

Haru knew very well that it drove Makoto crazy when he talked while they were having sex -- but lately he'd taken to pretending he didn't know it, whispering increasingly outrageous things until Makoto lost the ability to talk back. Later, Makoto could never remember the things Haru said with any clarity; he only remembered being completely at Haru's mercy and content with that state of affairs. But this time it didn't feel like a strategic move. Haru's harsh breathing, his casual words, the way his heel dug into Makoto's calf -- these things were all for Makoto, _because_ of Makoto.

After Haru was finished, he swiped perfunctorily at his belly with a tissue and then crawled in under the covers to return the favour, but Makoto was so hot for him already that he came before Haru could seriously get going.

"I knew you really wanted it," Haru said when he came back up, his tone somewhat gloating.

"You're talking like I don't usually want it," Makoto murmured, kissing his temple, his cheek, his mouth. 

Later, they lay side by side, Haru dozing, Makoto staring at the light fixture.

From tomorrow, they were going to have mandatory orientation for a week, and then school would begin -- classes and club activities and part-time jobs. This one week they had spent together would probably seem like a dream once all that stuff got going.

Makoto was all but set on spending the rest of the day just like this -- with a break for a trip to the community pool -- but Riku had other ideas. He ran into the bedroom meowing, jumped up on top of the comforter, tromped all over them to get right into their faces, and issued a loud command to be fed.

*

The first few weeks of university really ended up so busy that Makoto didn't even have time to notice that they had forgotten to exchange phone numbers with Kagami and Kuroko. They must have been on completely different schedules, too -- he had seen Kagami at a distance a couple of times, never close enough to call out to him without drawing everyone's attention. Never once had he spotted Kuroko, and he'd even scanned the cafeteria crowd more than once for familiar faces.

Makoto was grateful for the daily swim club practice: it and lunch were the only times he and Haru actually got to be together at school, since all their classes were in different buildings on opposite corners of campus. Haru was pleased with their university club for a variety of reasons: indoor pool, outdoor pool, and a coach who had every interest in winning but no interest in asserting authority over his swimmers. But mostly it was the availability of pools. The club room was spacious and had plenty of trophies and ribbons on display, dating all the way back to when the university first opened.

"Haru, will you get the door?" Makoto asked. It was the third week of classes and they were back from their weekly grocery run. Just in time, too: the fridge was empty. Next week, Haru was going to have evening lab work every day, so he planned to cook a bunch of things that could be frozen and then reheated so Makoto wouldn't starve to death.

Not that Makoto would actually starve to death -- he could boil eggs! -- but Haru had refused to listen.

As Makoto stood in the doorway, holding the door open with his back and waiting for Haru to come get the two bags he was holding so he could get the sports drink packs from the hallway floor, Riku darted out of the kitchen and made straight for the door.

"Riku, no!" Makoto wailed. He set both bags on the floor -- Haru _hated_ it when he did that but it couldn't be helped -- and ran out after him. "Riku, you can't go out yet, you still need your second set of shots!"

Tail held high, Riku trotted off towards the stairwell. He was only a small kitten and didn't understand why he needed shots.

[tbc]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 70% water / cannibal joke is not mine, but I've seen it so often online that I don't know who the originator was. If you know, let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

Taiga glanced at the pot on the stove and then back inside the refrigerator. He was no geometry expert, but there was no way the leftovers from tonight's dinner would fit anywhere except the freezer, not even if he used the smallest containers he had and tucked them into every available crevice. And the freezer probably wasn't going to be enough, either.

He sighed. There'd been no helping it: the fish they'd bought had been so cheap it had to be close to expiring, so he'd decided to cook it all to avoid having to throw it out tomorrow. Cheap or not, he didn't like throwing food away. Were it winter, he could've just used the balcony as extra refrigerator space, but they were just a few weeks away from the rainy season.

 _Maybe we should see if we're allowed to buy a bigger fridge._ This wasn't the first time this kind of thing had happened.

He heard shouting outside -- the kitchen window was closed and he couldn't make out the voice or the words, but it sounded like trouble. Taiga lowered the heat on the burner to a minimum and walked out to see what was going on.

Nigou stood at the top of the staircase, tail wagging. A few steps down behind him, Kuroko held on firmly to Nigou's leash. In front of Nigou, just shy of snapping distance, stood the neighbours' little cat Riku. Behind Riku, a terrified-looking Tachibana tiptoed forward with the clear intent of grabbing the kitten.

Nigou didn't seem to have noticed the kitten: he was focussed on Tachibana.

"Tachibana-kun, you might want to stop," Kuroko said in a neutral tone. "Nigou's starting to think you're a threat."

Taiga glanced at Nigou, and sure enough: he was staring directly at Tachibana, unblinking, and that wasn't a friendly tail-wag at all: his tail was half-up, moving slowly. His hackles weren't raised, but it was a near thing -- his ears sloped down anxiously. What with his general distrust of dogs, Taiga had become sort of a pro at figuring out Nigou's mental state in the past three years.

Tachibana smiled. "I guess he would, wouldn't he? Seeing a stranger creep along like that." He crouched down close to the ground and looked away from Nigou, keeping his eyes on Riku. The cat just stood frozen, his tail all the way up, his orange fur all fluffed out like he was trying to make himself bigger. He _was_ bigger than the last time Taiga saw him -- kittens sure grew quickly.

"It's okay, Nigou," Taiga said. "That's our neighbour."

Nigou's tail-wagging became more energetic at the sound of Taiga's voice, but he continued to keep an eye on Tachibana even as he snuck a few glances Taiga's way.

"Apron." said Nanase, who had just walked out of their apartment. He was staring at Taiga.

"I was cooking dinner," Taiga explained, unnecessarily. _Oh, smooth. Why the hell else would a person wear an apron?_

Nanase nodded. "Your dog is huge."

"Is this your first time seeing him?" Kuroko asked.

Tachibana looked up. "Ah! It's the first time we're seeing each other since that time!"

"Everyone says the first month is the busiest," Nanase remarked.

Taiga looked at the two of them and immediately had an idea. They were both athletes, too -- athletes needed extra energy, which meant more food than your average person. Here was a possible answer to Taiga's food storage dilemma -- besides, it was high time they invited the neighbours over, anyway. Win, win. But before Taiga could speak, Nigou stretched his neck out towards Tachibana and sniffed. His tail started to move faster, as if in recognition. It made sense: Nigou would already be familiar with Nanase's and Tachibana's scents, seeing as they lived right next door.

"You want to introduce yourself?" Kuroko asked. Nigou looked around at him and panted. Kuroko loosened the leash, and Nigou trotted towards Tachibana, sidestepping Riku. Riku, for his part, turned around and continued staring at Nigou -- though he seemed less fluffy than before.

"He's ignoring the cat," Taiga said, a little awed. He'd never seen Nigou ignore anyone before.

"Completely," Nanase agreed.

"That's why I'm pretty sure he doesn't hate cats," Kuroko said. "He's always just left them alone."

"That's a good thing," Tachibana said as Nigou thoroughly sniffed his jeans at the knees. "Is it okay to pet him?"

"Oh, go ahead," Taiga said. "He loves attention."

"His name is Nigou," Kuroko put in.

"Nigou," Tachibana repeated. He knelt and scratched Nigou's chest -- Nigou's tail wagged even faster. "You're a good boy, right?"

Nigou panted into his face -- his preferred method of confirming that he was, indeed, a good boy. To Tachibana's credit, he didn't flinch away or even wrinkle his nose at the faceful of dog breath.

"His eyes are blue," Nanase said.

"Yeah, that's probably why he was abandoned as a puppy," Kuroko said. "Brown eyes are the breed standard."

"People in Tokyo throw away dogs for such a shallow reason?"

"Haru!"

Nanase crouched down, and Nigou immediately went over to him, pulling Kuroko along. Kuroko had to hop awkwardly to avoid Riku, who had in the meantime unfluffed himself and sat down, now studying Nigou with unmistakable curiosity.

"Why is it a good thing that Nigou ignores cats?" Taiga asked.

"If a dog ignores a cat long enough for the cat to become curious, they're more likely to get along," Tachibana explained. "Dogs are a little too friendly for most cats' liking, and they don't speak each other's body language in the first place. That's why they often end up fighting, because people don't know how to handle the situation."

Nanase put his hand out for Nigou, palm up. Nigou sat down readily and placed his paw in it. Nanase shook Nigou's paw with a dead-serious expression, as though concluding a business deal. "Pleased to meet you," he said in grave tones, using polite speech. "My name is Nanase Haruka."

As Tachibana looked at the two of them, smiling, Taiga felt the odd sense of witnessing something he had no business looking at: it was as though Tachibana's eyes took on a special shine just looking at Nanase. Lifelong friendships were really something different. Taiga couldn't help feeling a little envious of the two of them.

Riku, who had in the meantime edged closer to Nigou, swatted his rump and meowed.

Nigou looked around, blinked, and tilted his head to one side.

"Oh no, that's too cute," Tachibana said, giving Nigou's chest another scratch. "How can a big dog like this be this cute?"

"Big creatures have their own special charm," Kuroko remarked, staring at Taiga. Taiga's neck felt hot. _What's that supposed to mean?_

Riku meowed again, somewhat piteously this time, and Nigou got back to his feet and turned around to face him. Riku approached slowly, placing his paws in front of himself just so, not taking his eyes off Nigou for a second. Nigou stared back for a moment, then looked away.

Tachibana exhaled. "Your dog is really sweet, to let Riku stare him down like that."

"Nigou," Kuroko said softly. "Stay."

"Will it be okay?" Nanase asked. "His shots."

Tachibana nodded. "Nigou's a dog, so it should be fine. They don't share many diseases with cats."

Riku came up to Nigou's front paw and began to sniff it in that delicate way cats had -- bringing his nose close enough to touch Nigou's fur, then moving right back, repeatedly. Nigou, for his part, sniffed the top of Riku's head from a respectful distance. He didn't need to make an effort to keep that distance, either -- even two Rikus stacked on top of each other wouldn't come up to Nigou's muzzle when he was sitting down like this.

"They already know each other's scent a little bit," Tachibana said. "From that time you guys came over."

Riku sat down and looked up at Nigou, lifting one paw off the floor. Nigou licked him right on the face. Riku made a tiny _mew_ sound and glanced around wildly -- he looked so offended that Taiga burst out laughing.

Tachibana took the opportunity to scoop the flabbergasted -- and slightly damp -- Riku up in his arms. Riku struggled a bit, angling towards Nigou but not in a spoiling-for-a-fight kind of way.

"I think they're going to get along just fine," Kuroko said. "Though I think we'll have to explain to Nigou that kittens do not need baths."

"Sorry for startling you," Tachibana said. "He just ran out suddenly. It's lucky you were coming up the stairs, or he might've fallen down. He's never taken the stairs before." As he spoke, he looked more and more like an anxious parent.

"Get him back inside," Nanase said. "I'll carry in the sports drinks."

"Okay. See you later, Kagami-kun, Kuroko-kun."

"So, hey, uh, why don't you guys have dinner with us?" Taiga suggested as they started to turn back to their apartment. "I made way too much, so you'd really help us out. It's Indian-style mackerel curry."

Nanase brightened. "Mackerel?"

*

"They're really nice people," Kuroko said after Tachibana and Nanase were gone.

"Yeah," Taiga said. Nanase had turned out to be the cook in that household, and he'd gone home with Taiga's mackerel curry recipe. Not that it was really Taiga's; he'd found it online somewhere, back when he'd been all by himself as a new returnee, bored out of his skull and trying to break up the monotony with food experiments. Thanks to two extra mouths, the pot's remaining contents fit nicely in a medium-sized plastic container. Now it sat on the counter to cool off a little before going in the freezer. "I was surprised about Nanase. I thought Tachibana would be the one doing the cooking."

"Because he's taller?"

"No, he's just kind of parental, isn't he?"

"You aren't parental at all, Kagami-kun, but you still cook."

"Forget it," Taiga said with a shrug. "It's hard to explain." It was very obvious from looking at their neighbours that Tachibana took care of Nanase more often than the other way around. Maybe parental was a bit much, but he was definitely a big brother type.

"I understand what you mean," Kuroko said with a sly glance up at him. "I was just teasing you a little."

Taiga drew himself up. "You--!"

"Bath. I'm going ahead first," Kuroko said, vanishing from his side.

Taiga sighed. Technically, it was Kuroko's job to do the dishes. It wasn't that he neglected doing it -- he always did it without prompting, but he didn't mind letting things soak for a couple of hours, and Taiga hated it when dishes sat in the sink after a meal. So he was going to end up doing the dishes again tonight.

But so far this was the only disadvantage he'd found to living with Kuroko. Often, friends who moved in together discovered that they were completely incompatible as housemates. Everyone had their own pace, their own preferred way of doing things, and when there are too many differences causing irritation, it's not surprising that people inseparable for years would start to quietly dislike each other. Taiga didn't mind washing the dishes. _Maybe along with asking about a bigger fridge, I'll see about installing a dishwasher. If I agree to leave it behind,it'll increase the property value, right?_

Once he was finished with cleaning the kitchen, he put the curry leftovers in the freezer. As he turned around, he found Kuroko in the kitchen doorway, wearing pyjama bottoms and a tank top. A towel dangled down from his head. "I was coming to do the dishes," he said.

"It's fine," Taiga said. "I had nothing else to do, so I got them out of the way."

Kuroko came closer and peered at the dishes in the drying rack. "Do I do it wrong, Kagami-kun?"

"What?" Taiga asked. Kuroko's hair was still a bit damp, and some drops of water had slid down to the nape of his neck. It was really distracting, though he didn't understand why. It was just water.

"The dishes. Could it be that you have a special way you prefer them arranged? You can tell me, I don't mind."

Taiga dragged his eyes away from Kuroko's neck. Kuroko was fresh out of the bath, so that must have been why he was feeling hot all of a sudden. "It's cool," he said. "It's my problem, so I don't mind doing it."

Kuroko poked him in the ribs. "We live together now. You don't have to treat me like a guest."

"I'm not! You're perfect," Taiga said. "I mean, uh. You know what I mean."

Kuroko's face turned pink, and he muttered something about a bed and started to walk away.

"After extra practice tomorrow, want to see if that new pizza place is any good?" Taiga called after him, apropos of nothing.

"I can't tomorrow," Kuroko said, turning around. "I'm going on a group date. Tanigami-kun invited me."

"Oh." It was funny how it had never occurred to Taiga until this moment that Kuroko could go on a date with someone. The realisation felt like something in his throat.

"I would invite you along, but Tanigami-kun said I wasn't allowed to invite anyone too good-looking."

"Oh, I see--" Taiga began, then choked on his own spit as he realised what Kuroko had just said. "What do you mean, too good-looking?" he spluttered, and he knew his face was probably crimson, but that was-- well, Taiga didn't even know what to think.

Kuroko frowned up at him. "I'm just saying what he told me. Why are you getting upset?"

"I'm not upset? You've just never told me that you think I'm good looking before." Taiga wanted to yank the towel off Kuroko's head and bury his face in it. He looked around for a kitchen towel instead.

"I don't think you're good looking," Kuroko said with a puzzled frown. "I _know_ you are. Kagami-kun, could it be that you've never looked in a mirror before?"

"Of course I've looked in a mirror, you idiot! Don't just tell people they're good looking!"

"Why not?"

Kagami made a face. "Anyway, why did he invite you then? Does that bastard think you're ugly?"

Kuroko shook his head. "No, what Tanigami-kun said was that he didn't want trolls but he also didn't want anyone who's like sex on legs, either."

 _He's way too casual about it, obviously he's just saying this as a friend. Be cool, Taiga. Be cool._ But it was no use; there's no way he could be cool when all the blood in his body had rushed right to his face. "What the hell kind of expression is that?" he exploded, unable to help himself.

"I'm sorry," Kuroko said, backing up a little. "I didn't realise it would upset you so much."

"I'm not upset! Argh!" Taiga marched out of the kitchen, heading straight for the bathroom.

After showering off, he submerged all the way down until his nostrils were barely above the water and waited for the rest of his body to turn as pink as his face felt. He was mortified, but most of all, he wanted to ask Tanigami why the hell he didn't think _Kuroko_ was good-looking enough to be competition. Was there something wrong with his vision? Hadn't he _seen_ Kuroko with his shirt off after practice?

*

A few days later, Taiga was on his way home in the early afternoon for the first time in ages -- their civics professor had fallen ill, and administration hadn't been able to find a replacement on short notice, so they let everyone go home with a vague promise of making the time up one of these Saturdays. 

He decided he'd take Nigou for his exercise now, while it was still light outside. They usually jogged around the nearby pond -- well, the locals called it a pond, but it was big enough to be called a lake. Nigou had always loved waterside walks the most, and running around the lake made him so happy that he didn't even mind having to have his paws washed in a basin outside the apartment before he was allowed back in.

Lately, though, Taiga and Kuroko had both been so busy with school and club activities that Nigou's second exercise hour had to happen in the dark. While the roads here were quite safe compared to Tokyo -- thanks to more courteous drivers -- and Nigou was very well-trained, they always worried. Maybe in daylight, Taiga could find a route that had mostly sidewalks but still took them past the pond at least once.

He had taken the staircase opposite theirs and was approaching Tachibana and Nanase's apartment when he heard their voices inside: the living room window was open.

He couldn't help himself; it was always getting him into trouble, but there was something irresistible about listening at doors -- well, and windows. As long as he didn't use whatever he learned in an evil way, it was fine, right? It wasn't like he was ever going to meddle in anyone's business.

"Haru," Tachibana said in a strange, thick voice. "S-stop that, Haru, I-- oh. We're out of condoms--!"

"I bought more this morning." Nanase sounded out of breath.

Tachibana gave a low, soft laugh that was obviously private, meant for Nanase only, that Taiga wanted to cover his face and run right off the edge of the world. _I am such an asshole._ But he was terrified to move -- what if they heard him? How would he ever explain himself? _What was I thinking?_

"Let me close the window," Tachibana murmured. "Someone might hear."

"Okay."

The heavy curtains rustled and the window closed, shutting out their voices. Taiga just stood there for a moment, frozen, grateful that the windows in their building were on cranks and you didn't need to reach outside to close them. Then he tiptoed back to the staircase and all the way back down, crossed the courtyard, and ascended the other stairs, feeling like the world's most spectacular fuck-up.

It wasn't that he wished he hadn't listened. No, he _did_ wish for that -- he shouldn't have found out such a thing by snooping. But deep inside, he also was glad that he'd overheard them. Because all of a sudden, it became easier to breathe.

[tbc]


	4. Chapter 4

Haru's phone was ringing on the bookshelf, to no avail: its owner was otherwise engaged.

The bed would've been more comfortable, but they'd found Riku sprawled on his back atop the covers, his little paws twitching in sleep. It had been so cute that Makoto had forgotten what they'd come there for until Haru had reminded him with a well-placed hand. So they'd gone back to the living room and spread Makoto's shirt out for him to sit on while Haru rode him.

Makoto, who would probably always have misgivings about possibly hurting Haru when he topped, liked it best when Haru had control like this. Makoto could let himself get caught up in the heat and pulse of Haru's body, not worrying that the wrong move could ruin everything. One problem was the condom: they tended to get yanked off in this position so Makoto had to hold on to it the whole time.

"Just take it off," Haru murmured as Makoto steadied his grip.

Makoto put his hand on Haru's ass and pressed his own upper back harder against the wall -- the only way to brace himself. "Maybe next time." Safety aside, he didn't think his heart would survive being inside Haru without any kind of barrier. Just the thought made him feel a little faint.

Haru kissed his mouth and slid all the way down on him, practically to the hilt. "That's what you said last time."

Makoto bit his lip. "Please warn me before you do that," he breathed.

Haru leaned in closer and put his hands on Makoto's shoulders. "Are you about to come?"

Makoto mouthed Haru's neck, tasting salt. "Probably." The other problem with this position was that Makoto liked it far, far too much. Which Haru knew very well.

"Me too," Haru confided. "Stay still."

Makoto didn't last long, but Haru wasn't far behind him; he finished right before things got a bit too uncomfortable for Makoto. He loved looking at Haru right when he came -- eyes closed, sweat-matted tendrils of hair sticking to his cheeks, his mouth soft and relaxed as though he were floating in an endless pool. Makoto knew perfection because he knew this face. He could never grow used to it.

Afterwards, Haru sat astride Makoto's hips, head down, while they both caught their breath. Makoto would have liked to sleep a little, but their bed was too far away and occupied, and the futon closet was all the way back in the bedroom too. He removed the condom and tied it closed, then hid it in his fist.

"Next time," Haru muttered, poking at Makoto's knuckles with a finger.

"Won't it be too messy?" Makoto objected, smiling with embarrassment into Haru's hair.

"Messes can be cleaned up." Haru moved back and stretched, arms high over his head. Makoto stopped breathing and stared at him. Haru either didn't notice or pretended not to; he rose to his feet, a bit unsteady, and headed in the direction of the bathroom.

"Your phone was ringing," Makoto reminded him.

"Uh-huh." Haru picked it up from the bookshelf and continued on his way.

Makoto went into the kitchen, dumped the condom, washed his hands with the dish soap, and used a wet paper towel to wipe his chest. He got dressed and started picking up Haru's clothes when Haru walked back into the living room, wearing a look of woe.

"Haru-ch-- er, Haru?" Makoto asked, fingers tightening on the shirt he'd just picked up. "What's wrong?"

"That was my mom," Haru said. "On the phone. The house sold."

"Oh." Makoto's hands fell to his sides. He didn't know what to say. They'd known for a while now that Haru's parents were going to sell the house in Iwatobi. But knowing that it no longer belonged to Haru's family -- or wouldn't once all the paperwork was finished -- hurt in a special way. And if it hurt Makoto, how must Haru have been feeling?

He wanted to say something reassuring, but what kind of reassurance was there to be had after losing your childhood home? It wasn't the sort of thing that was ever going to be okay -- just something to make peace with. Try as he might, Makoto couldn't do that in Haru's stead. 

For Makoto, too, it was an important place that saw their relationship through from the start to what they had now. But it was far more than that for Haru. The house by the shrine was where Haru had become the person that he was, where he'd lived with his grandmother, where he'd mourned her loss, and where some part of her spirit must still have lingered. Makoto glanced towards the family altar at the back of the room and reached out to squeeze Haru's hand briefly.

If this had been his little brother, Makoto would have given him a hug, but Haru found that kind of thing stifling. He hadn't come here to seek comfort, just to let Makoto know that he would need to be alone for a while.

"I'll go do some work in the garden," Makoto said. "Come down whenever you like."

"No, it's okay," Haru said. "I'll go to the pool."

"Isn't the water polo team still using it?" They had some kind of exhibition game coming up, and so had begged the swim team to skip one practice -- hence why Makoto and Haru had been able to come home so early today.

"The outdoor pool opened this morning."

Makoto smiled and handed Haru his shirt. "Don't catch a cold."

*

"Tachibana?"

Makoto was sure he recognised Kagami's voice. He tipped the bill of his baseball cap up and saw that he'd been right. A black wet doggy nose appeared in front of his face, sniffing eagerly, and then moved on to his hands. Nigou's tail was wagging so energetically that his whole rear end wiggled. "Well, hello there," Makoto said, patting Nigou's nose. "You're much friendlier today than the first time we met, aren't you?"

"Sorry about that," Kagami said, tugging on Nigou's leash to little effect. "He's a weird one."

"Going for a walk?" Makoto asked, nodding in the direction of the path towards the road that led down to the lake.

Kagami gestured towards the house. "Just coming back from one. It was nice to walk during the day for once."

"Wasn't it too hot?"

"Not too bad by the lake. Er, pond."

Makoto laughed. "I keep doing that too. Apparently the locals know you for an outsider if you call it a lake."

"What about you?" Kagami asked. "Isn't it too hot for gardening?"

"I've got my sun protection," Makoto said, tipping his cap bill down a little. "My mom says I should wear a proper straw hat, but Haru has forbidden it. He thinks it makes me look like an old man."

Something strange flickered in Kagami's eyes -- was it just Makoto's imagination? Perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned his mom; Kagami's family situation as he'd explained it over dinner the other day had seemed rather similar to Haru's. Maybe, unlike Haru, Kagami was still lonely without his parents.

"I'm keeping hydrated too," he continued cheerfully, pointing to his water bottle. "We got out of classes early today, and Haru's off at the outdoor pool. I thought I'd do some puttering."

"I got out early too," Kagami said. "That's why I took this guy out. He's happy about it, anyway. Nigou, you want off-leash?"

Nigou, who had been inspecting the radishes, barked once and sat down with an expectant look up at Kagami.

"Be a good boy," Kagami said, unhooking the leash. "No running. No digging in the ground. That's Tachibana's ground, not yours."

Nigou shook his whole body after the leash came off and trotted over to Makoto's tool bucket.

"He's so well-trained," Makoto marvelled. "These guys are very headstrong if you let them do as they like. Plus they go stir crazy -- how do you find time to exercise him?"

"We need the exercise too, so it's a win-win situation. Besides, it can't be fun for him to stay cooped up while we're at school."

Makoto brightened. "Hey, if you guys want to compare schedules, we'd be happy to take Nigou if you're out and we're home. So he's not as lonely." Haru had mentioned it just the other day after hearing Nigou whining softly on the other side of his door. He must have heard the two of them and wanted to say hello, but, being a dog, couldn't let himself out.

Kagami stared at him with open wonder. "You'd do that?"

"Sure," Makoto said. "We like him, and Riku could use a friend who's a bit more fuzzy than us."

"I dunno," Kagami said. "He sheds like crazy. You'll need a new lint roller every week."

Makoto shook his head. "Not to worry -- Riku's already taking care of us in that regard; his mom is very fluffy. So it wouldn't be any trouble."

"Let's ask Kuroko when he gets home," Kagami said. "Technically, Nigou's his dog."

Makoto sensed tension in Kagami's voice. Perhaps Nigou was a source of conflict between the two of them? More than once, Kagami had mentioned that he was no good with dogs because of some past trauma or something like that.

"Sure," he said, casting about for a change in subject. "So are you thinking about planting things here too?" 

"Maybe," Kagami said, surveying the plots dubiously. "I don't know the first thing about it, though."

"Neither did we," Makoto confided. "I still call my mom with questions, but it's not really that difficult."

"Isn't it too late to plant things?"

"Depends on what you want to harvest," Makoto explained. "If it's potatoes, you'll have wanted to plant those a while back. Bit too warm for radishes now, too. Beets and carrots should still be okay, though. I have a sowing calendar at home if you want to come by and look."

Kagami nodded, but Makoto couldn't tell if he was interested or not. The way Kagami furrowed his eyebrows made him look a little annoyed or deep in thought, and Makoto didn't know him well enough yet to tell which it was. And there was that odd glimmer in his eyes that Makoto didn't remember from the other times they'd met and talked.

"What's that?" Kagami asked, pointing. Nigou, who had been nosing at the ground by Makoto's rubber boots, had unearthed an edge of the radish planter.

"Planters," Makoto said. "We bury them in the ground to keep things separate."

Kagami scratched his nose. "Oh, I thought it was just the ropes."

"Ropes won't keep the roots from going where they like," Makoto explained. "Everyone's really friendly here so I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem if a neighbour ended up with some of our radishes, but it's easier to just use planters."

"What about shiso?" Kagami asked. "The stores here favour the green, but I use the red more. I found some the other day but it was kinda sorry-looking."

_Oh right, I keep forgetting he's the cook in their household._ "That's pretty easy, but you might want to get that started indoors -- shiso seeds take their time sprouting, and at home it's easier to keep an eye on them," Makoto said, pleased that Kagami had asked about something he actually knew: his mom had always grown red shiso in their kitchen garden. "But it'll grow well once you get it going."

They chatted a while longer, but Nigou started to get restless from roaming around the same place for too long, and Kagami said he had to get started on dinner, too.

Not long after they were gone, Makoto figured out what Kagami's weird expression had reminded him of: the eyes of a dog that had done something bad and was expecting the inevitable talking-to.

*

He had laid out the futon for himself -- for later -- and was lying on top of it, helping Riku play with the red-and-black mouse toys Ren and Ran had made for him, when the front door squeaked open.

"I'm home," Haru said.

"Welcome home," Makoto called. "Come look at what Riku's doing."

Riku, who had been on his back attacking a mouse with his hind paws, paused and turned his eyes in Makoto's direction.

"Yes, I'm talking about you," Makoto assured him. Riku returned to the toy.

"Why the futon?" Haru asked from the doorway.

"I wasn't sure if maybe you wanted to be by yourself longer," Makoto explained, glancing at the clock on the headboard. "Wait, were you swimming this whole time?" He hadn't realised how late it had gotten.

Haru sat down next to them and stroked Riku under the chin. "No, I went for a walk after. Just around the lake."

"I think we're supposed to call it a pond," Makoto said. Had that been why Kagami had seemed a little off? Perhaps he and Nigou had seen Haru looking sad and lonely during their walk, and hadn't known if he ought to have told Makoto? But Kagami struck Makoto as a very direct sort of person. He'd have probably just gone ahead and told him. "Did you see Kagami-kun there, by any chance?"

Haru shook his head. "Not that I noticed, why?"

"No reason, I ran into him earlier as he was coming back from walking Nigou by the pond."

"Nigou's cute," Haru said. "Not as cute as Riku, though." Riku closed his eyes and stretched his neck out for more scritching. "The town bought the house so they can make it part of the shrine."

"I see," Makoto said. He'd already heard the whole thing from his mom, whom he'd called just after he'd come back from the garden, but he listened to Haru carefully.

The town would annex the Nanases' land to the shrine, tear down the house, and build a proper visitor reception area. Just last week, a famous idol group member had posted online about wishing to attend the Iwatobi squid festival coming up in the summer, and the town was expecting a huge influx of tourists for at least the next few months. Where this idol heard about Iwatobi and why she wanted to come to the festival were apparently big mysteries the fans were having fun trying to solve.

"I wonder what will happen to the cats," Makoto said.

Haru sighed. "They'll probably catch them and take them to the pound here in the city."

"I hope they don't get caught, then. They're smart cats. Are you sad, Haru?"

Haru looked down at him for a few moments, his expression difficult to read in the bedroom's low light. "About the cats?" he finally asked.

"About your home."

Haru lay down beside him and rolled close enough to make Riku squeak in protest at getting crowded out.

"This is home," Haru murmured, speaking to Makoto's chest. "Where you are."

Makoto pressed his nose against Haru's forehead. "Riku too," he said, his voice a little tremulous. Haru rarely said things like that, and Makoto never knew what to say back. _I love you so very much_ just wasn't the sort of thing you could say to Haru without making him feel ultra-self-conscious for hours.

Haru nodded, his cheeks flushing, and he hid his face in the crook of Makoto's neck. "Have you eaten?"

Makoto kissed his hair. "I had a ham sandwich when I fed Riku."

"So you're hungry." Haru threaded his fingers with Makoto's.

Makoto stroked Haru's hand with his thumb. "A little."

"I'll make something."

Riku pounced on their linked hands, probably thinking Makoto's thumb was an exciting new toy that somehow moved on its own.

[tbc]


	5. Chapter 5

"Kagami-kun."

"Wha--?"

Taiga lifted his head and blinked at the round clock on the kitchen wall. Nine in the evening. At around seven, he'd sat down after taking dinner off the heat, intending to just rest quietly for a few minutes. He couldn't feel the arm he'd been using as a pillow, and the only saving grace here was that at least he hadn't drooled all over the tablecloth.

Kuroko, standing to Taiga's left, leaned in to peer at him with concern. "Why are you asleep in a place like this?"

"Shut up," Taiga said, turning aside and glaring at the salt and pepper shakers on the other end of the table. "Your face is too close." 

Which was a stupid thing to say, because he wanted Kuroko's face even closer than that. In fact, the hazy dream just before this had featured all of Kuroko much closer to Taiga than he'd ever had any reason to be.

"If you aren't getting enough sleep, you should go to bed earlier," Kuroko said. "You're not in high school any more, you know." He walked over to the stove and lifted the lid on the pot.

"We were just in high school a couple of months ago," Taiga muttered. "Don't turn us into old guys."

"I didn't say anything about myself," Kuroko pointed out. "I was talking about you only."

Taiga rounded on him. "Why, you little--"

"This smells really good," Kuroko said. "It's still warm, too."

"Heat it up properly," Taiga said. "Don't be lazy."

"Will you eat with me?"

"Yeah, why not. Grab me a plate too."

As they ate, Taiga told Kuroko about Tachibana's offer of helping with Nigou's lack of companionship. The truth was, they had both noticed that he'd been growing a bit subdued ever since they'd moved here. Back in Tokyo, he'd had company all the time, as Kuroko's mom ran her own business out of their house. Between missing her and being all by himself most of the week, it was a wonder he hadn't started destroying the furniture yet.

"That's really nice of them to offer," Kuroko said. "I think it would make Nigou happy."

Nigou, who lurked as usual under the table waiting for a little something to come his way -- it always did -- headbutted Taiga's shin. "You stop that, or I won't give you anything," Taiga told him. 

Nigou headbutted him again.

"What if they need to leave before we get home, though?" Taiga asked, resolving to ignore this blatant attempt at food extortion. "We can't ask them to leave Nigou in their apartment."

"We can get a duplicate key for them," Kuroko suggested. "The place in the department store does it in about ten minutes, I've heard."

"Is that really a good idea? We don't know them that well."

Kuroko looked up and fixed Taiga with a blank stare of confusion. "Do they strike you as untrustworthy?"

"It's not that." _If anyone's untrustworthy, it's me. Listening at windows like some kind of gossip._ Taiga remembered the soft undertone in Tachibana's voice, remembered -- again -- that he would never hear anything like that from Kuroko. It nearly made his food go down wrong. "Fine, if you think they can be trusted, that's good enough for me."

"You say the sweetest things, Kagami-kun."

"Shut up," Taiga said, snatching his empty plate up as he rose. "Come on, Nigou, walk time."

Halfway down the stairs, he realised that he probably should have asked if Kuroko wanted to come along, but he was glad he hadn't. Having figured out what he wanted made him feel too self-conscious and weird to even sit near Kuroko, let alone take leisurely walks together in the starlight.

*

Taiga lay with the bedsheets pulled up over his head, pretending to be asleep. There was no need to; he could tell by the sound of Kuroko's breathing that he was already sleeping and so wouldn't ask any weird questions, like why Taiga, who could fall asleep anywhere at any time, was awake at one in the morning. 

Okay, so maybe that wasn't a weird question, but Taiga still didn't want Kuroko to ask it. He didn't want Kuroko to ask anything at all. Lately, every time they had a conversation, it got more and more difficult for Taiga to keep himself from just blurting out that maybe they could try going on a date, or having sex, or both. Not at the same time. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. 

He couldn't even be sure that he wasn't just confused. The way Kuroko made him feel was similar to how he felt right before playing against really strong guys, like Aomine or Kise. Except Kuroko wasn't an opponent he wanted to beat. He didn't remember ever wanting to spend any more time with Aomine or Kise than was strictly necessary, either. He'd never move halfway across the country to be with either of those losers. But what if he was wrong? It wasn't like he had a lot of experience with this kind of thing.

Taiga rarely spent time thinking about the right thing to do: he tended to trust himself not to be a bad guy and to do the right thing on instinct, because he wasn't any good at analysing people or situations, except when playing basketball. He couldn't even make sense of his own damn mind, let alone someone else's. It was easier to act first, deal with the consequences later. But sometimes his instincts were wrong, and in this case, that could wreck their friendship.

Besides, Kuroko had gone on two group dates already. He claimed it was because he found it an interesting new perspective on people that he hadn't seen before, but Kuroko _would_ say cool stuff like that while neglecting to mention other reasons he liked group dates. After all, it was only normal that he would want a girlfriend now that he was in university. Most guys wanted to date girls. Until he'd overheard the neighbours, Taiga had thought he'd never meet anyone else who liked guys unless he went out looking.

Sleep overtook him on the fifth go-round through this pointless, neverending circle of second-guesses. Next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes again to Nigou headbutting the bedroom door to demand his morning walk and the sound of water rushing out of the sky outside. The rainy season had come.

After brushing his teeth, Taiga came out of the bathroom, rubbing his jaw and wondering if he should've shaved too, when he nearly collided with Kuroko, who, as usual, sported the world's most epic bedhead.

"Sorry," Taiga muttered, pulling back quickly. "Didn't know you were there."

"It's been a while since my natural lack of presence affected you like this," Kuroko said.

Taiga wasn't sure what to say to that. These days he rarely had trouble knowing Kuroko was in the room: it was difficult to overlook the one person you wanted to see the most.

"You want some coffee?" he asked.

"No, thank you." The bathroom door closed behind Kuroko, and Taiga was left with the feeling that he'd just done something wrong.

They usually grabbed coffee out of a vending machine on their way to campus, so it took Taiga a bit to find where he'd stashed the can of ground coffee he'd bought a few weeks ago. He was just about to open it when Kuroko marched into the kitchen, looking as though it were the day of a decisive match.

"Kagami-kun, I'd like to ask you a personal question, if you don't mind sparing a moment of your time."

Taiga put the coffee down and turned to him, a bit apprehensive. Kuroko always spoke politely, but this was a bit over the top even for him. "Sure, what's up?"

"Have I started to smell bad recently?"

Taiga blinked at him. "Smell bad? You?"

"I can't think of another reason for you to avoid being within three metres of me." Kuroko's eyes narrowed slightly. "Because obviously have been."

"I haven't," Taiga lied. Maybe if he denied it, Kuroko would drop it. It was worth a shot.

"So I just imagined it that for the past three weeks, you've chosen not to sit on the sofa when I was on it, even though the sofa is your favourite. And more than large enough for both of us."

"I--"

"And if you are on the sofa and I happen to sit down, you soon make an excuse to leave -- and if you do come back to the living room, you sit on the floor."

Taiga looked away. He'd had no idea that Kuroko had noticed any of it; that was the _last_ thing he'd wanted. He knew how observant Kuroko was, obviously, and he'd thought he'd been careful -- both about the excuses he made to leave space between them, and about checking Kuroko's reaction every time.

"I don't know what you mean," he said lamely. Why wouldn't Kuroko just drop it? What did he even care if Taiga stayed five kilometres away?

"Ever since we met, I've had a habit of always watching you closely, so don't bother denying it. You've been doing these things, and you've been doing them on purpose, and I don't understand why. It really hurts my feelings."

"It's not what you think," Taiga said, and immediately wished he could take it back. Saying such a thing is basically an admission that there is an _it_ , and hadn't he just claimed the opposite? But hurting Kuroko's feelings hadn't been on the menu, especially not to the point that Kuroko would actually say so out loud.

Kuroko marched up to him, so close that they would have been practically nose to nose if they'd been of a height. As it was, they stood nose-to-unruly cowlick. Taiga didn't know where to look. Kuroko being this close was making his heart beat double time, and he was starting to sweat. Pretty soon he'd be the one with a case of foul B.O. -- nerve-sweat had the worst stink.

"I am going to ask you another question, and I'd like it if you would answer me honestly."

Kuroko sounded as gravely serious as he always did, but there was a strange, tinny undertone to his voice that made Taiga look at him with concern. He found Kuroko's clear blue eyes unblinkingly focussed on his face and wished he could look away, because those eyes were going to mess him up even worse. He was going to spend weeks thinking about kissing Kuroko now, like this, and imagining how his eyes would change if Taiga did such a thing.

"What do you want to know?" By some miracle, his voice remained steady.

"Has living together made you realise you dislike my company?"

Taiga's eyes opened wide. "No! I love you...r, um. Company."

Kuroko rose on his tiptoes and kissed him. His lips were warm and much softer than Taiga had imagined, and he didn't close his eyes at all. They stared at each other, neither of them moving, like actors in a play. Taiga's heartbeat was so loud in his ears he was sure the whole city could hear it. It was nothing like what went through Taiga's head when he thought about kissing Kuroko, yet it felt like a confirmation: he knew without a doubt that Kuroko was the one he wanted to kiss. Even if this awkward, trains-frozen-in-each-other's-headlights kind of kiss was as good as it was ever going to get.

Just as Taiga made up his mind to put his arms around Kuroko and try for another kiss, Kuroko broke away abruptly and took a slow step backwards. "I'm really sorry, Kagami-kun. Please forget that happened."

Inside Taiga, something gave -- like a guitar string pulled too tight finally snapping, but louder and brighter. The space between them felt _unfair_ \-- like the moment a ball sails cleanly through the hoop just a second too late to beat the buzzer.

"Who the hell would forget it?" he demanded, glaring at Kuroko for all he was worth, then gathering him up close and pressing his mouth to Kuroko's cheek, then the side of his jaw, then his mouth; the kinds of kisses he'd thought about for weeks and weeks. Kuroko grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, and for a split second, Taiga thought he was going to get pushed away again. But Kuroko moved closer instead, and Taiga could feel his heartbeat, as frantic as his own. At that point, he quit thinking completely.

After they came apart to catch their breath, Kuroko remarked, "You looked like an angry bear just now, Kagami-kun."

Taiga snorted. "No I didn't."

Kuroko pulled free and took a step back to search Taiga's face. "You don't hate this?"

Taiga, now thoroughly embarrassed, only held his gaze for a few seconds. "Of course I don't," he muttered, looking away. His face was hot again.

"May I take that to mean you've been avoiding me out of concern for my purity?"

_Purity?_ "Now listen here--" Taiga began.

Nigou, who had been curled up in the corner and watching the two of them with mild interest -- probably wondering when they were going to quit making weird human noises at each other and walk him already -- suddenly bolted towards the front door with a happy _woof_. A moment later, the doorbell rang.

Kuroko turned -- with a bit too much haste, in Taiga's opinion -- and went to open it. Taiga, still vibrating with joy and confusion, unwilling to let Kuroko out of his sight, followed him.

Behind the door stood Nanase with a measuring cup in his hand. "Do you guys have some sugar I can borrow? I want to make pancakes because Makoto's sad about failing a test."

[tbc]


	6. Chapter 6

"We're home," Makoto said, setting down Riku's basket as he toed off his shoes. 

Riku poked his nose through one of the basket's side holes and let out a protesting _mew_. Makoto undid the clasp on the basket lid and lifted it. Riku climbed out, toppling the basket, and trotted off towards the living room without a glance in Makoto's direction.

"He's mad at you," Haru remarked from the hallway.

Makoto sighed. "Well, it couldn't be helped. He needed that microchip."

"He'll forgive you for a treat. Cats are reasonable."

"That reminds me -- we're low on kitten treats." Makoto eyed his shoes doubtfully. He wanted to offer to go to the store -- they were out of sugar, too -- but he had to study for his English make-up test on Monday. He'd only taken Riku to the vet's because today was his turn to be the bad guy: he and Haru had agreed that if they had to do something Riku hated, they'd never do it together. They figured that way Riku could feel he had someone on his side.

"I'll get some later," Haru said. "Let's have breakfast."

Makoto's stomach gave a pang. "Is that what smells so nice?"

"I made pancakes," Haru said. "Welcome home."

Makoto's eyes widened as he remembered their conversation from that morning. Yesterday, he'd found out that he'd completely bombed an English test and would have to study all weekend to make it up, so he'd woken up feeling grumpy and sorry for himself.

_Haru lay on his stomach, cocooned in his blanket, most of his face hidden in a pillow, just one eye open and staring at Makoto. "Morning," he mumbled._

_Makoto smiled and was just about to reach for Haru and squeeze him a little -- he hadn't done that in at least two days -- but remembered that he was facing a weekend of intensive English vocabulary review. He felt considerably less glad to be awake, and his smile vanished._

_Haru lifted an eyebrow. "What's wrong? Does your stomach still hurt?" To make a terrible week worse, Makoto had eaten something strange at the student cafeteria on Tuesday, and it had taken his body a couple of days to recover._

_Makoto sat up and scratched his stomach through his t-shirt. "It's not that. I have to study all day today and tomorrow," he grumbled. He'd been putting on a brave face all week, but he'd had about enough, and at least Haru wasn't going to judge him for complaining like a baby. "I don't wanna."_

_He wrapped his blanket around his shoulders like a medieval-fantasy cloak and held it tightly to his chest. "Also I want to eat pancakes," he added. "But the family restaurant is far away, and I have to take Riku to the vet's, anyway."_

_"Want me to take your turn?" Haru asked, very obviously not pleased at the prospect._

_"No, I didn't mean it like that," Makoto said quickly. "I'm going right now."_

He'd been dressed, washed, and out the door within ten minutes. It had never occurred to him that Haru would take his whining to heart like this.

"You really didn't have to, Haru-ch, uhm, Haru."

Haru said nothing, but he didn't complain when Makoto wrapped him up in his arms for a good squeeze, just as he'd wanted to earlier in the morning. Makoto was definitely being spoiled. It pretty much made his week from hell worth it.

"Are they mackerel pancakes?" Makoto asked for caution's sake. Haru rarely thought it was necessary to mention that he'd included mackerel in a dish whose recipe didn't call for it on any planet.

Haru wrestled his way out of Makoto's embrace and rolled his eyes. "No, they aren't. I borrowed some sugar from Kagami."

Makoto rubbed the bridge of his nose, embarrassed. "Well, I had to ask."

"Those two were arguing about something early in the morning," Haru said as Makoto followed him into the kitchen. "Kuroko's hair was all messed up and they both had pink faces."

Makoto was only half listening: the pancakes sat in a large bowl in the middle of the kitchen table and looked as delicious as they smelled. "And I thought those two really got along."

"They could've been making out, I guess."

Makoto didn't even dignify that with a response. Haru thought it was perfectly normal for practically everyone to be same-sex attracted, and no amount of statistical analysis convinced him otherwise. He made a mental note to thank the neighbours for the sugar later and switched the conversation topic to Riku's morning adventure and the good news that the vet was going to give them a discount on neutering him in a month's time.

After breakfast, Haru went to buy groceries, and Makoto washed dishes then settled down on the living room floor with chapters three through seven of his English for Science textbook and a spiral notebook. Riku, who had decided midway through breakfast that pancakes were more important than his vet trip grudge, kept trying to help Makoto study by repeatedly attacking his fingers as he tried to copy down intimidating vocabulary words. There was no helping it: he would have to be able to read English-language publications if he hoped to move on to graduate school, and for that he would need more English than high school could have taught him. He had four years to repeat this special course if need be, but Makoto didn't want to fail, even if almost everyone else most likely would.

Haru returned with groceries and then left again to go swimming. Riku grew bored of his ineffectual assaults on Makoto's hands and switched to a jingly mouse toy, causing a terrible racket. Makoto put in some ear plugs and continued copying words, muttering them under his breath as best he could, until his hand cramped and a tension headache threatened to descend. 

Haru, back from the pool, offered lunch, but Makoto wasn't hungry -- their breakfast had been closer to lunch time anyway, since the vet trip had taken three hours. Makoto had not dared to risk riding with Riku's carry-basket in the bike's basket, so he'd taken the train and then walked, instead. It really made him think twice about his dad's offer to pay for driving lessons. He and Haru couldn't afford to buy a car, of course, but they _could_ rent one when needed.

Makoto shook his head forcefully and turned back to the vocab lists. Why did _ultrasonic_ and _supersonic_ mean different things? Advertisements always announced that their wares were ultra this or super that, so wouldn't that logically mean they were the same thing? Apparently not. 

Haru tried cracking open one of his textbooks too, got obviously bored halfway down one page, wandered to the TV to play a solo dragon-hunting mission, then came back and fell asleep using Makoto's thigh as a pillow. Riku climbed down from his cat tree, curled up on Haru's chest, and followed suit. By this time, Makoto was halfway through chapter seven, and soon he was done copying out all the words that had given him so much trouble. Now he would read through them once again to see if any had stuck in his mind this time around. But first, a little break.

His pillow-leg had fallen asleep and his butt was completely numb, but Haru and Riku looked too peaceful to disturb, so Makoto just sat there, looking from Haru's sleeping face to Riku's rapidly-breathing form, wishing he could fully see both at the same time, but with a clear preference for Haru. He couldn't recall the last time he'd had the leisure to just look at Haru's face like this. He felt torn between wanting to keep staring at Haru forever and wanting to touch Haru's cheek, to kiss his forehead, his temple, the sensitive spot below his right ear.

"You look hungry," Haru told him, sleepily.

Makoto smiled, a little embarrassed at having been caught off-guard. "Not exactly."

"Bedroom break?" Haru drew Makoto's head down close and leaned up to give him a kiss.

"Yeah," Makoto said. "After I finish studying."

"You're no fun," Haru said. "I'm going to make dinner."

After dinner, Haru disappeared into the bathroom for some more water time. Riku, left alone, ran into the living room to cavort around the cat tree, meowing loudly enough to pierce through Makoto's foam ear plugs. He always got very active and excited right around this time of day, and Makoto -- whose review had taken less time than he'd anticipated -- finally called it quits on studying. He entertained Riku for a little while and then went to join Haru in the bath.

No fooling around was allowed in the bath -- the very idea of any kind of bodily fluids dirtying the water offended Haru, who basically considered water to be a living creature. Makoto's thinking didn't extend quite that far, but he too didn't see the appeal in getting all hot and bothered when he was supposed to be relaxing after a long day. Maybe they both would have seen things differently if they'd moved in together at the start of their physical relationship, when they hadn't been able to keep their hands off each other if left alone for thirty seconds. Makoto didn't really miss those days, though: he preferred the balance they'd found together, over time. He was always going to be crazy about Haru, but it helped not to be literally mad with lust.

Haru sat back against him, and more water splashed out of the bath and ran down into the drain on the green-tiled floor. Makoto shut his eyes and tried to banish the afterimages of English letters that slid across the insides of his eyelids. "I want you to top," he murmured into Haru's damp hair.

"You sure?" Haru asked. "You had that food poisoning."

Makoto pressed his mouth to the side of Haru's neck. "Yeah, I'm fine now."

*

On Sunday, he studied his leftover word lists until it was time for Riku's first venture outside. They'd planned it for weeks but hadn't wanted to risk it without a microchip, harness or no. Riku's previous escape attempt had been scary enough. The weather report said the rain would stop for two hours at midday, and as soon as it did, Makoto and Haru made ready.

Riku must have thought that the harness was a fun new toy, because he let himself be strapped into it without protest. Once he realised that it wasn't going to come off and would stick to him no matter what he did, he started trying to bat it off himself in the cutest show of futility Makoto had ever seen.

"It's just for a while," he tried to reassure Riku, who ignored him completely and continued to roll and twist around on the floor, his meows at the same time indignant and plaintive.

Riku's tantrum lasted approximately ten minutes, after which he sullenly allowed Haru to attach the leash to the harness while Makoto fed him a kitten treat.

They came out of the building and ended up face to face with their neighbours, who must have taken their pet-walking cue from the weather report, too.

Kuroko was holding onto Nigou's leash; he and Kagami stood close together, so close Makoto felt like he and Haru had interrupted something. He remembered Haru telling him they'd been fighting yesterday. But they stood side by side, not face-to-face, so maybe they'd worked things out already.

"Hello," Kuroko said, spotting Makoto and Haru. "I didn't know you walked your cat too."

"It's his first time," Haru said.

"Thanks for lending us sugar yesterday," Makoto said with a smile. "Next time, you should come and have pancakes with us."

Nigou barked and tugged on his leash experimentally.

"Want me to take him?" Kagami asked, eyeing the spot not far ahead where pavement gave way to a dirt path that would lead to the pond.

"No, thank you," Kuroko said. "I can handle it. How come Riku is on a leash?"

"We can't let him out freely yet, so we bought him a harness for now," Makoto explained.

Kagami looked at him. "Is it a shots thing?"

"No, he's done all his shots, but he's not been fixed," Makoto said. "He's still little so he probably couldn't make any kittens even if he tried, but we don't want to take the chance."

"Nigou could make kittens if he wanted, right, Kuroko?"

"They're called puppies, Kagami-kun."

"Shut up, I knew that!"

Between their earlier exchange about Nigou's leash and this, the pair of them seemed completely at ease with each other, and Makoto wondered why they'd been fighting.

Kuroko allowed Nigou to come closer and sniff Riku, who seemed a bit more enthused about the dog this time. Maybe he felt like they were comrades in misery, both cruelly leashed by the evil two-legged food dispensers.

Once cat and dog exchanged sniffs of greeting, they all kind of started walking together without discussion. Nigou and Riku trotted in front, as if they did this every day, though Riku was having a bit of trouble keeping up with Nigou's pace.

"Kagami-kun told me you guys offered to take care of Nigou if we aren't home and you are," Kuroko said. "We appreciate it."

"We'd be happy to whenever," Makoto said. 

Beside him, Haru nodded. "We'll compare calendars later."

"By the way, do you guys have training camp coming up, too?" Kagami asked.

Makoto and Haru exchanged glances. They had completely left training camp out of their considerations.

"I didn't even think about what we'd do with Riku," Makoto admitted.

"When's your camp?" Kagami asked.

"In three weeks' time, right after the semester ends," Makoto said.

"And then another at the end of August," Haru said.

"Then it all works out," Kuroko said. "Our training camp is for two weeks in September. We'll take care of Riku while you're gone, and we'll ask you to keep an eye on Nigou."

"You don't have to move him in," Kagami added quickly. "We'll just give you a key to our place."

At that moment, Nigou must have smelled the pond -- he started determinedly dragging Kuroko up the path, demonstrating rather handily why Kagami had offered to take the leash earlier.

"This is going to sound weird, but I need to tell you guys something later," Kagami said in a low voice.

"Both of us?" Makoto asked, dropping his voice too. He could tell Kagami was trying to avoid Kuroko hearing him, though he couldn't understand why.

Kagami's cheeks turned inexplicably pink. "Yeah. It won't take long, don't worry. Text me when you're free and I'll come by or something."

"You can come by any time you like," Makoto said. After yesterday and this morning, he was feeling a lot more confident about his chances on the make-up test. "Or we could meet you somewhere on campus tomorrow…?"

"Nah, I'll stop by later. See ya then." Then Kagami dialled his voice back up to call, "Kuroko, where's the fire? Wait up."

He picked up his pace and soon caught up to Kuroko and Nigou atop the low hill. Another moment, and they were out of sight.

"He played it like it was Kuroko who was going too fast, not the dog," Haru said.

"I guess he didn't want Kuroko to lose face. Kuroko did say he could handle it, earlier."

Haru said nothing, though Makoto could tell he was thinking something along the lines of _people can sure surprise you_. He was about to tell Haru about Kagami's upcoming mysterious visit, but Riku veered off to the right of the dirt path, and it was Makoto's turn to follow the family pet into the bushes.

[to be concluded]


	7. Chapter 7

Taiga had lost at rock-paper-scissors for washing the dog after he had taken a splashy romp in the pond shallows. He heard Kuroko's phone ringing just as he let Nigou out of the bathroom. Nigou carried his towel in his teeth, perhaps as some sort of war trophy for having endured the indignity of a bath.

"Oh, hello, Kise-kun. It's been a while since we've last spoken."

 _What's Kise doing calling Kuroko all of a sudden?_ Taiga followed Nigou into the living room. Kuroko sat on the couch with his feet tucked under him, the TV remote in his free hand.

"What's that? You're bored and lonely and everyone else hung up on you?" Kuroko's face remained perfectly straight. "You should really make some nicer friends, Kise-kun."

Taiga realised this was a great opportunity to go and see the neighbours as he'd promised -- the fewer questions Kuroko asked about where he was going, the better.

"Be right back," he said, heading straight for the door. " _Don't_ tell him I said hi, because I didn't."

Kuroko shot him a look. "By the way, Kagami-kun says hi."

Sighing, Taiga ducked out of the apartment and headed straight for the neighbours' door.

Nanase opened the door and let him in without a word, looking expectant and curious.

"Is that Kagami-kun? Come on in," Tachibana called from the kitchen. Taiga followed Nanase inside.

Tachibana was in the process of clearing the table -- they must've just finished a late lunch.

Taiga had shown up with every intention to just confess that he'd overheard them about to have sex, and because of that he had become aware that they were a couple. But all the words he'd thought about before just kind of disappeared. He'd already known that it would be terribly embarrassing for every one of them if he mentioned it, but now that he was here, it also struck him that he would have to see their embarrassed expressions. Well, Tachibana's embarrassed expression, at any rate. Nanase was so unflappable he could've given Kuroko a run for his money in how to be calm even if your hair was on fire.

Not that Kuroko's hair had ever been set on fire. That Taiga knew about.

_I'm stalling._

"I, um." Taiga looked wildly around the kitchen to see if he could maybe comment on some aspect of the interior. Not that he had any idea about interior decorating.

Riku jumped up on the table, crouched behind a large salad bowl with a bit of oily dressing still on the bottom, and began to stalk one of the crumpled-up paper napkins that Tachibana hadn't gotten to yet.

"Hey now, you know you aren't allowed up there," Tachibana chided, approaching the table with the clear intention of cat removal.

"It's pointless to tell a cat it's not allowed somewhere," Nanase said. He turned to Taiga. "So what did you want to tell us?"

"I'm going out with Kuroko," Taiga blurted out. He didn't know why. Nanase had just asked him so directly, he'd felt like he had to answer somehow. It made sense in a weird way -- he felt guilty about having found out their secret, so he spilled his own without a second thought.

Tachibana's jaw unhinged and he sat down heavily in the nearest chair, scaring Riku right into the salad bowl.

"See, I told you, Makoto," Nanase said, fishing Riku out of the dressing.

"Wait, you knew?" Taiga asked, realising that Nanase wasn't talking about the cat.

" _You_ knew?" Tachibana asked, looking at Taiga. "About us, I mean. Why else would you tell us?"

"Well, uh. Something. Like that. Yeah." He was sure his eyes were extremely shifty right then, but there was nothing he could do about it. Why did Tachibana look so thunderstruck? Taiga _knew_ what he'd heard.

"A few of our other male friends are together. Makoto doesn't think it should be possible, for it to be this many at once," Nanase explained. He then ripped a paper towel off a roll and started mopping the squirming Riku with it.

"Maybe we're contagious," Tachibana said in a loud whisper probably meant to be concerned, but the effect was spoiled by his obvious inability to stop smiling at Riku's helpless flailing.

Nanase rolled his eyes. "It's not a disease." Riku gave up struggling as a bad job and decided to try eating the bit of paper towel closest to his face.

"I've liked Kuroko since pretty much forever," Taiga offered, in support of Nanase's point. "Long before we met you guys." For some reason it was so much easier to say to these two. With Kuroko, they hadn't discussed anything like feelings in the first place, just made out a lot. "Anyway. I didn't mean to, uh, startle you."

"No, I'm glad you told us," Tachibana said. "We haven't had any trouble, but this kind of relationship is not the sort of thing most people accept. And we're neighbours and everything."

"It's good to know you won't end up hating us," Nanase put in.

"They might still hate us for some other reason," Tachibana said, smiling.

"I'm pretty sure we aren't going to hate you," Taiga said. Though he felt a little guilty about speaking for Kuroko when he wasn't even here, there was a weight and significance to the word _we_ that hadn't been there before yesterday morning.

*

He had hoped Kuroko would be distracted with whatever it was he'd been trying to find on TV before Kise's phone call, but Kuroko muted the TV as soon as Taiga walked in the room.

"Where did you go in such a hurry?"

Taiga contemplated saying that he'd gone to the convenience store, but he was empty-handed. Besides, what he'd told the neighbours was Kuroko's business, too.

"Oh, just the neighbours," Taiga said, taking a seat next to Kuroko. "Riku jumped into a bowl."

"A bowl of what?"

"Salad dressing. They were done eating, so it was fine."

"I guess sometimes even kittens need baths," Kuroko said. "Don't tell Nigou."

He leaned his shoulder against Taiga's, and Taiga began to sweat. "I, uh, kind of accidentally told them."

"Told them what?"

"That you and me are, thing." Taiga turned away.

Kuroko poked him with his elbow. "Like what kind of thing?"

Taiga made a face. "You know what I mean!"

"Well, anyway, they're the same, so I am guessing they didn't mind."

Taiga looked at him, surprised. "Hold up, how did you know that?"

"Kagami-kun, haven't you noticed how they look at each other?"

Kuroko's eyes were full of earnest curiosity, and Taiga blushed. "No." He had noticed, but he'd attributed it to being childhood friends. Besides, it was really difficult to think of things to say when all he wanted to do was kiss the person he was talking to.

"I see." Kuroko slid his hand, palm up, under Taiga's, and linked their fingers.

Taiga stared down at their hands, heart pounding. "I want to kiss you. Does that make me an asshole?"

Kuroko's grip on his hand tightened. "Why would it?"

"We're having a conversation," Taiga offered.

"Let's postpone it." Kuroko let go of Taiga's hand and straddled his lap so quickly, Taiga wasn't even sure what had happened until Kuroko's lips found his and his heart leapt all the way into his throat. For a moment, he didn't know what to do with his hands -- he knew what he _wanted_ to do with them, but couldn't figure out how to move them.

Then he was back, and his hands slid underneath Kuroko's shirt, up his back, his fingers soft against Kuroko's shoulder blades. Kuroko pulled back from the kiss and breathed out heavily, his face flushed. Taiga glanced down at his front and noticed his shorts sticking up -- yesterday, Kuroko had worn jeans when they'd done this, and it hadn't been as obvious.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Taiga said, hoping to encourage him. He'd seen videos before, but those guys were professional performers. He'd probably pull a muscle trying to imitate them, not to mention that their lines were cheesier than a lifetime of Izuki's puns.

Kuroko smiled a little. "I don't either. We're not training for a competition, so let's just take our time."

"Yeah." Taiga took the time to reach into Kuroko's shorts and get his hand around his dick.

"There's a slow start if I've seen one," Kuroko muttered, but moved closer anyway.

"Sorry," Taiga said, flushing. "I just--"

"It's fine," Kuroko breathed. He pushed his shorts down enough so his front was exposed, and put his hands on Taiga's shoulders.

The angle was weird, but nothing he couldn't get used to. Would doing what he always did be enough? How could he tell if Kuroko liked it without asking him embarrassing questions? These and other things buzzed about his brain, but Kuroko was kissing him, and that made it hard enough to think, not to mention that his own dick was so hard he felt like he could put it through a watermelon, skin and all. He was pretty sure this was the same hard-on he'd had yesterday. Revenge of the boners.

"Kagami-kun, I'm going to--"

Not knowing what to do, Taiga quickly stuck his other hand over Kuroko's dick, and not a moment too soon. Kuroko hid his face in the space between Taiga's neck and shoulder as he came, and the muffled noise he made sent Taiga's mind into a tailspin. He'd heard all sorts of grunts and moans from Kuroko over the years -- physical training was noisy, often embarrassingly so -- but this one was different. Taiga decided not to dwell on it just then, because Kuroko -- now lifting his head off his shoulder and refusing to meet Taiga's eyes -- looked mortified.

"I better go wash this off before I get it all over myself," Taiga said, gesturing with his still-cupped hands. Kuroko nodded, still looking completely discombobulated, and moved off Taiga's lap to let him leave.

He washed his hands with the soap he kept by the kitchen sink for use in between handling different types of food.

"I'm very sorry," Kuroko said, startling him a little. When had he followed Taiga out here? "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Well, I meant for it to happen," Taiga replied, staring into the sink as he dried his hands on a kitchen towel. "Is that going to be a problem for you?"

"I am sure I can live with it," Kuroko said. "In fact, I see myself becoming quite fond of it. Is that going to be a problem for you?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'quite fond'," Taiga parried. "Come here."

He led the way back to the couch and lay down, pulling Kuroko down on top of himself. Kuroko was heavier than he looked, but Taiga liked the feeling.

"Would you like me to touch your penis, Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asked, completely killing the mood.

Taiga smacked his bottom lightly. "You're not touching it if you're going to call it that, dumbass."

"What shall I call it, then? Would 'Mr. Friendly' be all right?"

"Don't attach weird nicknames to my dick! Or honorifics."

"Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, gazing up at his face.

"What?"

"You are my favourite."

"Shut up," Taiga muttered, covering Kuroko's eyes with his hand. "That's my line."

Kuroko settled down against his chest, and Taiga kept his hand in his hair, because it felt nice. Because he could. They lay quietly, listening to the whir of the ceiling fan. Outside, a new army of dark rainclouds poured a fresh helping of rain over the city. After about ten minutes, Taiga realised that Kuroko was starting to drop off: he rested heavier, and his breathing had evened out.

"Don't fall asleep in a place like this," he said. "Go to bed."

"But you aren't there," Kuroko said. "And we won't both fit on my bed. Or yours."

"So let's push them together," Taiga suggested.

"They'll slide apart, Kagami-kun."

"We could tie the legs, then they won't."

"One of us will always end up jammed in between the two mattresses."

Always _, huh?_ Taiga thought, fighting the urge to squeeze Kuroko tightly. "So you want to buy a bigger bed?"

"We can't afford one."

"I could call my dad--"

"--and say that you need money to buy a bed so you can sleep with your roommate?"

"Boyfriend."

Kuroko turned pink. "Boyfriend."

"I guess i don't want to spring it on my old man like that. What if we try to sell these beds? They're practically new."

"The store won't take them back after this long."

"No, I meant like Craigslist or something."

Kuroko tilted his head up to look at him with interest. "What kind of list?"

"Like classified ads."

Kuroko looked sceptical. "We could try, but I don't know anyone who would buy used furniture from a private ad, unless it was really cheap."

"Assuming we can find a buyer, the problem is, where would we sleep in the meantime?"

"The landlady never asked for her futons back," Kuroko said in conspiratorial tones.

Taiga sighed. "I hate sleeping on a futon." _But maybe I'll hate it less if he's next to me._

*

A professor couple from the graduate school a few towns over ended up taking the beds off their hands a month later, for their two daughters who were moving from Brazil to live with their parents. In another week, the futons were dry-cleaned and put away for the eventuality the landlady would remember them one day, and a new double bed installed in the bedroom.

Despite himself, Taiga was going to miss the futons a little. They'd decided to take their time, and they had been taking their time. Repeatedly and often, and not always in the bedroom.

Other aspects of their day-to-day lives remained pretty much the same, except for when the semester ended and they still had to spend most of their weekdays on campus -- either training or watching video after video of games featuring their biggest rival schools. They'd had a couple of practice games against other schools from the region, but camp was going to be the real testing grounds as well as the place where the coach announced the starting lineup for the coming season.

By contrast, the swim team's camps seemed to be more geared towards individual development -- after all, swimming wasn't a team sport in the same way basketball was; teamwork was only one facet of competition. They didn't take as long, either -- both were only a weekend.

When Riku stayed over during the swim camps, Nigou would let him try his food and sleep in his bed and drink out of his bowl, even though Riku had his own. He even let Riku chew his toys. Kuroko took dozens of photos of them sleeping next to each other and sent them to the neighbours. Riku was growing quickly -- he couldn't sit comfortably on just anyone's shoulder any more -- just Makoto's and Taiga's. Not that it stopped him from trying.

Towards the end of the summer, one week after the final swim camp and one week before Taiga and Kuroko were leaving for their camp, Makoto and Haru invited them to the festival in their hometown that they'd mentioned a few times before. Kuroko had gotten stars in his eyes at the idea of attending a festival together as a couple -- and no amount of his denying it would convince Taiga that those hadn't been stars -- so it was a no-brainer, really. 

"Those guys are running late," Taiga said.

Kuroko finished tying his shoes and straightened up. "Makoto-kun is probably trying to pack all of Riku's toys into his carrier again." They'd agreed that it would be best if the pets kept each other company for the next few hours since they couldn't come on the train ride.

"I'm glad they invited us. These stupid summer essays are no joke." Taiga cast a malevolent eye at the cabinet where they locked their electronics while Riku -- who was fond of chewing the cords off only the most expensive equipment -- visited.

"Let's invite them over to eat next time," Kuroko suggested.

"Good idea. I wonder what I should make? Haru likes mackerel, but I think Makoto's less than a fan."

"Or we could bake them a cake."

"I'm bad at baking."

"Isn't it the same is cooking?"

"Not at all. You put the wrong amount of anything in, and you might as well throw the whole thing away. You can hardly substitute ingredients, and there's a special way to do every task. Too much of a pain in the ass. It's like playing basketball using a calculator and measuring tape before every shot."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Kuroko said. "The baking, not calculator basketball. Maybe I can learn to bake. Then we'd be unstoppable."

Taiga drew him close. He still remembered what it felt like to want to do this and fear it -- a pit-of-his-belly, creeping, shivery unease -- but the memory had grown fuzzy. He had a much better recollection of what Kuroko's eyes looked like from this distance, from this angle. He hoped he would be reminded of it every day. 

_You won't hate it here, will you?_

Kuroko had asked him that once, back when they'd first moved in, and he'd said something about basketball back then, but then and now, it was not only basketball. If Kuroko was with him, he felt like he could be at home anywhere.

"We've been unstoppable since the beginning, dumbass," he muttered into Kuroko's hair.

[the end]


End file.
